I hate bluetooth headphones.
I want high quality audio both input AND output. I need a good mic on the phone- the only way you can get that is with a wired mic.
Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
161–170 of 496 posts
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#162Corded earphones: * never run out of juice * never have internal noise/audible hiss * never have trouble connecting * you can hear your vinyl rip FLAC as it is, not subjected to lossy psychoacoustic compression * you can use a variety of devices spanning decades to listen your music on
Yes! And: * Cheap * Better for the environment by a mile * Much harder to lose The one downside is the damn tangled wire.
Once I learned this trick to folding the wire, I never had that problem ever again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D_oV14dGmM
EDIT: Some people in the comments seem to think this shortens the life of the cable, but I've never had problems with Apple earbuds or Bose headphones (that have a replaceable wire anyway).
EDIT2: Another advantage of wired headphones if you want the wire out of the way and to make them less visible: Just thread them through your shirt!
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#163Remember the iPod commercials from, well, the only time people bought iPods? I'm far from an Apple fanboy, but they were pretty iconic. The music was spot-on, the actors and choreography amazing, and the white silhouette of the headphones sold it perfectly.
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here’s a link explaining why the UK Type G plug is so much better: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-the-electrical-plugs-and-socke... Photo of a type G plug (this is an adapter): https://www.rcjaz.ca/jazrider-type-british-3pin-electrical-a...
That link completely glosses over the fact that UK electrical networks are one big ring circuit instead of a radial circuit. This is because during WW2 they needed the metal savings, and this is also why every UK plug is fused and quite bulky. IMO the EU way is the best. Radial circuit, fused in groups, and the plug is either the Schuko plug (very safe since the earth/ground is always engaged first) or Europlug (rela…
Ignoring the circuit design and fuse location (which I agree with you on), the child proofing of British sockets is much better than Schuko sockets (CEE 7/3), as they require the ground pin to be engaged before protective cover of the live/neutral pins is opened - it's impossible to open just by pushing something in the live socket. How does this work with child proof Schuko sockets (I've never seen them)?
Also as someone who lived in both the UK and now a Schuko country, I do sometimes miss having a switch on the socket :-) We have a floor lamp without a switch, so we have to physically unplug it to turn it off.
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#165I have never really gotten used to wireless buds, and still find myself reaching for wires half the time: - Wireless buds don’t connect 100% reliably; sometimes I get one and not the other, or neither. Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use. - Sometimes the sound glitches out randomly, which is so irritating that I don’t care how good the sound supposedly is the rest of the time. - Gestures and voice are…
> Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use.
FYI, that's interference. Wi-fi "randomly" disconnects for a few seconds due to interference just as often, but you don't notice, because 1. the OS hides short disconnects, and 2. most protocols you use are TCP-based, and so use retries. (If you were doing something involving UDP streaming, you'd notice.)
Bluetooth audio, on the other hand, is a realtime protocol, which just drops stale packets rather than trying to retransmit them. Drop enough packets in a row, and the carrier thinks the device has gone out of range and disconnects it (as the alternative would be boiling your battery by turning the antenna gain up to infinity, as sometimes happens when cellular baseband misbehaves while ranging.)
> Gestures and voice are simply not as convenient as buttons on the wire. If I tap the thing in my ear, it tends to get shoved further into my ear and may still not register
Have you tried the AirPods Pro where you squeeze the stems? They're essentially buttons.
> Crucially, there isn’t a single problem above that occurs when using wires.
Put on your wired headphones. Sit down (e.g. on the bus.) Now try taking off your shoulder-strapped bag to hold it in your lap, without first taking out your headphones.
Or: try to change your shirt while keeping your headphones on + playing. (I know, unusual thing to do, but I've changed my shirt with wireless earbuds in without a thought.)
Or: get up and go to the bathroom, while continuing to listen to the livestream you're watching on the desktop PC sitting on your desk, without missing anything. (Provided I'm at home, I can usually get about 40 feet away from the Bluetooth source before my wireless headphones disconnect.)
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#166I've pulled my phone off the desk too many times to go back to wired (the laptop is heavy enough that it yanks the headphones off my head). But I'm still old school enough to use over-the-air headphones (Bose QC 35 II currently). It's nice to be able to walk away from the computer without worrying about the wire. And if I triple-check the mute setting to be sure I'm muted, I can even make it to the bathroom (or to th…
Being able to move around a lot has been super helpful for me with the QC35 IIs. I've gone everywhere inside the house, the occasional smoke breaks, running downstairs to pick up an order and so on. This pair has a surprisingly good range
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#167Wireless headphones suck. I have a good pair (WF-1000XM3) because my phone doesn't have an audio jack and they are always a pain. They connect to the wrong device frequently, the battery life is barely a few hours and the sound quality is ok. Always have trouble with voice quality on calls too. Often only one headphone will turn on but not the other. They are supposedly easier to carry because no cords, but they are…
I should note I have no issues with the WH-1000X (headphones, not earbuds) from Sony. Audio quality is great [0], battery needs to be charged maybe once a week, pairing works perfectly and they are pretty comfortable to wear all afternoon in the office. [0] Unless you try to make a call using the microphone, when it switches to a low quality codec, but are there any Bluetooth headsets that don't have this issue?
>are there any Bluetooth headsets that don't have this issue?
Yes. The recently released Bose QC45 headphones do not have this issue. I don’t know what they did to stop it, but it’s not present.
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#168Airpods are throwaway products. After 1 year of active use, my 150€ AirPods offer only a mere 90min listening time. And if it is cold outside, it can go down to about 40mins.
I will never buy them again >:-/
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#169I have never really gotten used to wireless buds, and still find myself reaching for wires half the time: - Wireless buds don’t connect 100% reliably; sometimes I get one and not the other, or neither. Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use. - Sometimes the sound glitches out randomly, which is so irritating that I don’t care how good the sound supposedly is the rest of the time. - Gestures and voice are…
> Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use. FYI, that's interference. Wi-fi "randomly" disconnects for a few seconds due to interference just as often, but you don't notice, because 1. the OS hides short disconnects, and 2. most protocols you use are TCP-based, and so use retries. (If you were doing something involving UDP streaming, you'd notice.) Bluetooth audio, on the other hand, is a realtime protocol,…
i too, used to shun bluetooth headphones. But since i've started using it, i've come around - the interference drops and the battery, both aren't enough to overcome the increase in convenience and portability. It's really, really good to have that portability with headphones.
Re: Corded headphones are making an unexpected return
#170I have never really gotten used to wireless buds, and still find myself reaching for wires half the time: - Wireless buds don’t connect 100% reliably; sometimes I get one and not the other, or neither. Sometimes they will randomly disconnect during use. - Sometimes the sound glitches out randomly, which is so irritating that I don’t care how good the sound supposedly is the rest of the time. - Gestures and voice are…
As someone who worked as a freelance audio engineer I have certain pairs of (chorded) headphones that I just want to use to hear my mixes (or other music) on.
I know how they sound and what they do to sounds. Every in-ear solution I had in my ears up to now doesn't even get close in terms of "resolution" (this is not a technical term but it is true, that some monitoring solutions will let you hear more of the recording than others).
Additionally my on-the-road headphones (Sennheiser HD25) last for a decade now. If the cable ever should fail I can get a replacement. If the earpad is through I can get a replacement. The only problem recently is, that phone manufacturers decided they need to be stingy about adding a 3.5mm TRRS-jack.